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What is your take on Milan Kundera? I've had him on my backlog for quite some time and will probably get through some of his work in the next couple weeks.
I have most of his published works, is there one you'd suggest I start on?
For me, "The unbearable lightness of being" and "The book of laughter and forgetting" were the best. I really like him, though I found his very last book to be a disappointment
Don't like him, especially his fiction, essays are somewhat fine. Too much of mentoring in his books, too much of showing of how he can write (see all that shit about 'how is Immortality book which you can't summarize').
Also dislike his attitude towards translation of his books and towards early stuff he wrote in czech etc.
Seems like an arrogant prick.
>>7457573
>his attitude towards translation of his books
What's his attitude.
>>7457621
He thinks that he's the best person to translate them, it wouldn't be that bad since it will have an impact on perception of him. But, he is almost pedantic, prolonging the translation process, because he's incapable of doing all the shit at the same time.
And he's acting like an idiot. There was one FAN translation into Czech of his book, it wasn't going to be published, just on some blog. That person translated it because the real, approved translation isn't going to happen anytime soon (maybe even never). And it had to be taken down (at the moment don't know how caused that, but Kundera is known for legally suing 'fan translation').
Though, "The Joke" original translation and his own translation are two different books.
But seriously, ad hominem isn't a really good clue to decide whether you read him or not...
>>7456506
I thought he was a she. He writes like a woman.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a beautifully written book. I don't remember all that much about it, but it's certainly aesthetically pleasing.
>>7457774
That's my feeling too. The analysis of the "kitsch" concept was nice also
Arguably the greatest writter of 20th century
>>7456506
One of the greatest living writers as far as I am concerned.
>>7457771
I honestly thought he was a woman for the longest time too, though I hadn't read him. From the ambiguous sounding Czech name and the John Green-ish titles for everything.
>>7458939
>greatest
>of 20th century
top Czech
read unbearable lightness as a tike, mostly a waste of time. like the other fellow i recall the kitsch stuff, also some passages on sensuality. remember being annoyed by a lefty-tilt to the narration, and that's uncommon, maybe unprecedented for me. now that i actually think about the book, a bunch of its events are floating back. you could do worse.
>Dat island of children section from Laughter and Forgetting
>>7459085
Didn't you like that "kitsch stuff" approach at least?
Also, the way he addresses the love question in his work is quite attractive
>>7459123
I was exactly thinking about this part right now. It's really frightening and accurate on a bunch of "problems".
That what I like in Kundera's work. He's quite acerbic, though he makes you feel how "consolations" are even more painful. That doesn't seem really "life affirming" said that way, but neither is he
Unbearable lightness was alright, he has a lot of ideas and tries some interesting methods to display them but I can't help but feel that he could have weaved almost all of the "philosophical" sections into the main narrative without much trouble. This isn't a huge problem it's just somewhat impractical and can be annoying because some of his framing is basically "I forgot to say this earlier". That's probably my biggest gripe, he passes of some lazy writing as intentional quirk. Overall it was still a decent read with some interesting concepts in the second half, read the first 50 pages and if you don't like it put it down.
>>7458939
Not even 'Arguably'
>Pessoa
>Kafka
>Sebald
>Bernhard
>Borges
>Joyce
>Proust
>Céline
>Roth
>Even Hemingway is better
>Arguably
>>7460818
>>Roth
Mt Everest of keks.
>>7460818
>Hemingway
>better than anyone
nah brah
I have never related to books as I have to some parts of Life is Elsewhere
>>7456506
don't listen to /lit/, he's very, very good. read the unbearable lightness of being first. if you like the political aspects, go backwards. if you like the philosophical/interpersonal aspects, go forwards. you really can't do any wrong, none of his works are significantly better or worse than any other in my opinion.
>>7461558
I agree with you, though I feel he was at the summit of his art in the period around "The unbearable lightness of being". His last book "The Festival of Insignificance" was quite a caricature
